Childhood is analyzed and constructed differently within different scientific approaches. So social pedagogy also deals with childhood in various ways in different analyzes and theories. If the focus is on empirical studies, a large number of papers can be found that address the phase of childhood and adolescence or children and adolescents as a target group (cf. Ritter & Schmidt, 2020, p. 7). However, it is noticeable that when childhood is examined in social pedagogy, it is often a question of relating childhood to other social categories such as poverty, education or migration. Against this background, the vulnerability of childhood seems to be particularly emphasized, to which the focus on the phase of life as a phase of coping also recurs (cf. Böhnisch, 2019). Children are also researched as a target group of socio-educational offers and they receive an exclusive role as recipients of help and protection concepts. Childhood is perceived here primarily in the area of ​​the tasks of socio-educational institutions and limited to this (cf. Betz & Neumann, 2013, p. 144). However, if childhood is reduced in socio-educational empiricism and theory purely to its need for protection and assistance in the conception of socio-educational offers, there could be a lack of a socio-theoretical localization of childhood. There seems to be a lack of a socio-educational conception of childhood, which should precede the subsequent development of practical concepts and empirical research. Sociology offers such theoretical approaches under the label of “new childhood sociology” - generational order (cf. Alanen, 2005), childhood as a socio-structural category (cf. Qvortrup, 2005), childhood and agency (cf. Bühler-Niederberger, 2010).

The poster presentation will demonstrate the demanding knowledge of sociological and socio-educational theory perspectives and systematize the outlined theoretical approaches of socio-educational childhood research and explain further strands of theory.

The poster assumes to be referring to the following questions:

1. How can a socio-educational theory understanding of childhood be grasped? How is childhood conducted in socio-educational empiricism and theory?
2. What consequences does the synthesis of the theories of “new” childhood sociology have for the socio-educational understanding of childhood?

The poster explicates the contradictions and tensions of these childhood studies - especially in relation to the agency factor - in a discursive way. It examines the childhood-theoretical strands in relation to each other and link these with socio-educational theory to childhood. The project contributes to the definition and clarification of the tension, which is reflected on different levels of theory formation. On this basis, there is a reorganization and structuring of childhood theory approaches that lead to further theoretical coherence.

The poster presentation is conceived as a theory work based on a sociological analysis of theories and perspectives (cf. Kneer, 2010). Theories can be analyzed as constructions of a subject area that is scientifically approximated. They should be justified and be verifiable (cf. Friebertshäuser, Richter & Boller, 2013, p. 380). In this sense, the work with theories examines the systematics that lie behind the cognitive interest (cf. Tenorth, 2013, p. 90). The theories thus make it possible to research and describe specific features and dimensions of reality more precisely. Scientific analyzes try to subsume the complexity of this reality in a way that central aspects are mapped. The reason why some things are considered and others are less discussed is a step of this analysis (cf. Friebertshäuser, Richter & Boller, 2013, p. 382). The presented poster is characterized as a discourse analysis (cf. Foucault, 1973). It addresses the discursive structure of knowledge. Discourses do not just include the subjects that guide them or the objects that the discourse is about. A discourse-analytical investigation also deals with the production, dissemination and modification of such discourses (cf. Maasen, 2009). Within the poster serves to classify the research situation and to present the theoretical discourses within or between the theories. Knowledge can be examined here as socially produced knowledge that can appear in different categories of knowledge types (cf. Maasen, 2009). In this context, a discourse-analytical procedure can be described which interprets and examines images, conversations or texts in the context of social discourses and power relations.

The poster will present a dissertation project on the topic described. It is about the disclosure of certain research gaps in the theoretical analysis of childhood as a phase of life from a socio-educational perspective. For this purpose, the various theoretical aspects of the in Germany so-called “new childhood sociology” are systematically classified and prepared for the development of a socio-educational childhood theory. The aim is to disclose the previous socio-pedagogical analysis of childhood and to show that before children are addressed as a target group for socio-educational offers and children are defined as vulnerable, a socio-theoretical concept of childhood is required as a basis. Then can socio-educational offers be aligned and designed, accordingly. The poster will address this question and contribute to the initial disclosure and analysis.

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